carefully labeled with dates.
On the largest wall hung a photograph of Kenji standing beside a woman with bright eyes and a teenage girl whose smile seemed to fill the entire picture.
Yuki recognized the expression on Kenji’s face immediately.
It was the same gentle expression he wore when he thought nobody was looking.
But the photograph had been taken years earlier.
And the woman and girl standing beside him were not part of the life Yuki had imagined.
Chapter Seven: The Family He Had Lost
Kenji remained in the doorway.
For a moment, he looked like a man who had walked into a room and forgotten why he had come.
Then he stepped inside and moved toward the photograph.
“This is my wife, Aiko,” he said. “And this is our daughter, Hana.”
Yuki said nothing.
Kenji took a breath.
“Aiko died eleven years ago. Hana was seventeen.”
The words
